EF1 tornado, Lamont to Lee, Florida, May 10, 2024

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

EF1

Date

May 10, 2024

Touchdown

7:31 AM EDT (11:31 UTC)

Lifted

8:02 AM EDT (12:02 UTC)

On the ground

31 minutes

Path length

37.5 miles (60.4 km)

Path width

1,300 yards (1189 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

Counties

Jefferson and Madison counties

Touchdown point

30.347, -83.833

Lift-off point

30.349, -83.213

Record number

2405100531-01

45 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TAE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Multiple trees down, trees snapped in half, lots of limbs, athletic training materials damaged or destroyed.
• Multiple trees and power poles down, twisted tops out of pines and damaged fences. Callahan Loop.
• Damage to a vehicle due to fallen tree
• Trees down County Road 141

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

May was an incredibly busy month defined by heat, heavy rain, and severe thunderstorms. The main weather event occurred on the 10th when tornadoes and swaths of intense straight-line winds ravaged the Tallahassee area. A severe squall line plowed through parts of SE AL, the FL Panhandle and Big Bend early that morning and produced a total of 7 confirmed tornadoes. Three tornadoes went through Leon County, of which two, each rated EF-2 (max winds of 115 mph), simultaneously converged on Tallahassee. That same storm also was responsible for destructive wind damage in excess of 100 mph with the FAMU Weatherstem site reporting a peak gust of 84 mph, while the Tallahassee Airport gusted to 66 mph. The former surpassed the 83-mph record gust at KTLH from 9/11/1990! The resultant impacts were widespread power outages, downed/snapped/uprooted trees, and 400+ broken utility poles (exceeding Hurricane Hermine/Irma/Michael combined, per the City of TLH). Unfortunately, there were two storm-related fatalities in Tallahassee. Damage costs to the city of Tallahassee were extensive. The city accrued at least $50 million in damages, not even including residential damages. Residential damage was significant. There were a total of 174 structures deemed destroyed, 742 with major damage, 780 with minor damage, and 417 that were deemed affected. The median home price in Tallahassee as of July 2024 is roughly $286,000. Thus, a rough estimate for residential damage is an additional $50 million for the destroyed structures (assuming $286K damage per structure), $74.2 million for the structures with major damage (assuming $100K damage per structure), $7.8 million for the structures with minor damage (assuming $10K damage per structure), and $2.1 million for the structures that were deemed affected (assuming $5,000 damage per structure). This brings the estimated grand total to $184.1 million, which will be divided equally between the two tornadoes since they merged together over the city.

The tornado initially touched down in Jefferson county just north of the intersection of Hall Road and S Salt Road where it twisted, uprooted, and snapped many young pine trees on the side of the road as it moved southeast. The Jefferson county portion of this tornado was rated EF0. The tornado would first reach EF1 intensity as it crossed SW Mount Olive Church Road in Madison County where numerous trees were uprooted and a trailer was damaged. The tornado would then begin a more easterly trajectory where trees were snapped along the Madison-Taylor county line. It would continue east-northeast through Madison county mostly through rural areas producing concentrated areas of EF1 damage to pine and oak trees throughout the duration. The tornado would continue its path over farmland just south of state route 8, tipping and twisting many irrigation spickets as well as snapping and uprooting adjacent trees. The tornado would dissipate over a field just west of the Madison-Suwannee county border. This tornado was rated as an EF1 with maximum winds of 100 mph and a maximum|width of 1300 yards.

The tornado initially touched down in Jefferson county just north of the intersection of Hall Road and S Salt Road where it twisted, uprooted, and snapped many young pine trees on the side of the road as it moved southeast. The Jefferson county portion of this tornado was rated EF0. The tornado would first reach EF1 intensity as it crossed SW Mount Olive Church Road in Madison County where numerous trees were uprooted and a trailer was damaged. The tornado would then begin a more easterly trajectory where trees were snapped along the Madison-Taylor county line. It would continue east-northeast through Madison county mostly through rural areas producing concentrated areas of EF1 damage to pine and oak trees throughout the duration. The tornado would continue its path over farmland just south of state route 8, tipping and twisting many irrigation spickets as well as snapping and uprooting adjacent trees. The tornado would dissipate over a field just west of the Madison-Suwannee county border. This tornado was rated as an EF1 with maximum winds of 100 mph and a maximum width of 1300 yards.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

15 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 11:16 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 11:45 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 08:05 UTC and running to 15:00 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Enhanced Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:57 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Perry (FPY), 31 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Tallahassee radar (KTLH), 78 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:29 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2024 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.